Early Bronze Age 3,000 BC-1,700 BC

All cities and villages need these things before becoming a civilization:

1. Sedentary life

2. Domestication of plants/animals

3. Surpluses are stored

4. Wealth increases

5. More leisure time

6. Trades specialize (focus on farming, some focus on crafts)

7. Buildings (domestic, religious)

8. Social Stratification based on crafts and wealth

9. Towns/Cities (need a large population)

10. Government system

11. Religious system (temples)

12. Written language

All civilizations have these characteristics in common:

Defined territorial state: A Large city with surrounding political alliances

Social Stratification: different people having different worth based on their jobs. Today we have lower, middle and upper classes. These classes were based on the work you do. Work such as craftsmen, rulers, religious officials, and government workers. Men and women would also be valued differently.

Workers: people who have a specific crafts/jobs/trades such as: farmers, artisans, merchants, builders, and religious officials. People were able to specialize due to increase in food allowing people to have more time

Architecture: monumental buildings like palaces, religious centers, tombs

Different Institutions: government, religion, formalized economic system. Their economy was a redistribution economy where the palace and temple collected food in taxes and gave it back to the people.

Technology: irrigation helped increase the output of agriculture and increased the population. Technology like the wheel, bronze/metal in Near East, plow, sailboat, and clocks.

Written language: way to keep records of taxes, religious sacrifices and conquests of the kings.

Origins of Mesopotamian History

1. As villages became overpopulated in the Neolithic Age (4,000-3,000 BC), people began to spread out. Because people were now sedentary, people could have more and healthier children. Although ironically, people’s health decreased somewhat. They didn’t have as much variety in their diet and many skeletons are seen to have bent statures (from grinding grain) and worn down teeth from eating rock fragments used in the grinding process of grain.

2. As the villages grew, they needed a king. Archaeology tells us that Uruk was the first city in the world but Eridu is recorded as being the first city. In a document that was written around 2100 BC we have a list of some of the early kings. It is separated into two sections with 8 kings ruling before a worldwide flood. Each king’s reign involves a multiple of 36,000 years-why they are in multiples of 36,000 years, we don’t quite understand.

3. King was NOT a god but the most beloved servant of the god. The gods were elevated far above the people.

4. There was still a real divide between the hunters and gathers and the civilized men that will persist until basically even today. Stories are told of the rejection of those now outside of the civilized places. Shepherds are seen as coarse and dirty. But farmers still needed the herdsmen. Herdsmen provided farmers with meat, milk and wool. Farmers gave grain.

5. The story of civilization begins with the Sumerian King List. It is divided into two parts: pre-flood and post-flood.

6. Antediluvian(pre-flood):

1. 8 kings and no corresponding artifacts to establish legitimacy

1. These kings ruled for thousands of years each!

2. First king ruled for 28,000 years and marked the beginning of civilization. His kingdom descended from heaven.

3. The final king prior to the deluge, was a king known by the name Ziusudra. He will be known by many other names in other documents of the time. They all tell the same story of a great flood. Some are worldwide and others are more local. They all have some type of story about how a man, king of Shuruppak, is saved. He is told to build a boat and it is set afloat on water. The landing places are all very different as are the events leading up to the boat building and the events after. In one story, the king receives eternal life and is responsible for repopulating the world. Some have the flood being sent out of anger of the gods due to the noise the people are making and others have it due to the evil the humans are creating.

7. Postdiluvian(post-flood):

1. Sumerian king list tells us that Kish became the new center of kingship. Series of kings known as the first Dynasty of Kish. First ruler of Kish was Gaur or Jushur

1. Kish was now the most important city and had replaced Eridu. All goods had to pass by when trading on the river. King could exact taxes. But he never extended his city boundaries to other cities.

2. Gilgamesh: real king of Uruk and an Epic was made about him. He ruled around 2600 BC.

8. The list leaves out rulers that are recorded on other artifacts. The Sumerian King List is probably a list of kings that ruled together rather than separately.

Geography and Origins

• Called Mesopotamia or “the land between the two rivers”

• Mesopotamia reaching down to the Mediterranean coast is called the Fertile Crescent

• Agriculture began 5,000 BC but needed irrigation

• World’s First Civilization began by 3rd millennium BC and formed city-states or one city which controlled the farm land around it

• The rains diminished into infrequent sprinkles that came only during the winter months.

• Life revolved around the Tigris and Euphrates.

• In a time when ancient people depended constantly on a good source of water, Sumer also had a fear of that water.

• People moved to “Sumer” because the soil was more fertile. But in southern Mesopotamia, ironically there is little to no rainfall and only rivers provide the water. Crops would need a steady supply of water which only artificial irrigation could provide.

• They needed to dig canal and make dikes. This ability to irrigate made the land more suitable than in the hilly areas of the surrounding areas.

• The rivers were unpredictable.

• In summer, searing winds blew across the unprotected plain. In April and June the rivers would overflow. The streams will swell up and wash away fields leaving silt behind. The rivers had a high level of salt which they would bring down from the mountains and the heavy irrigation that they used would begin to make the crops suffer eventually. By 1800 BC they had to switch from wheat to barley which could handle salt better.

• Climate

• Even though it is called the “Fertile Crescent” the area in Sumer was pessimistic and depressing.

• Everything depended on the rivers for food. Very fertile but unpredictable. The flooding would depend on rain and snow on the northern mountains and the melting snow would vary in intensity and volume. Can be sudden and catastrophic for humans and animals. Low flooding also led to drought and famine. Too much rain brought floods. The inundation could be too late to water winter crops and too early for summer crops. As soon as the rivers brought the water, the land would dry up in the hot heat of the summer.

• Climate was harsh and cold in winter and miserable hot in summer/ Sun and wind made much of the soil hard and dry.

• Protection from invasion:

• Little protection!

• The only protection is the desert on southwest and mountains on northeast.

• The rivers failed to provide protection. They travel a thousand hilly miles from the Zagros Mts. to the Persian Gulf. Separated by about 200 miles at the beginning and meet 100 miles from the gulf and empty into the Persian Gulf.

• The whole area is a flat alluvial plain, rivers run slowly, resulting in swamps, marshes and shallow lakes. It was a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

• In conclusion, had an extreme climate ranging from swamp to desert. Ironically a strong centralized civilization first developed in the south, even though the marshes and swamps made unification of cities very difficult. Why live in such an area?

• People didn’t until they had developed the right technology to create irrigation which was advanced enough to water crops in the south.

• They also needed a government that was able to devote time to oversee its construction.

• Perhaps it was the essential need for a centralized government to organize irrigation and distribute food that encouraged the civilization to develop.

• Perhaps because a civilization also develops out of the necessity to protecting what is yours. The environment was so hostile that a village of any size needed careful management to survive. Farmers had to cooperate in order to construct the canals and reservoir needed to capture flood water. Someone needed to enforce the cooperation and oversee the fair division of water-kings were forced to develop (kept people from being scattered). In a much less hostile environment, where protection wasn’t necessary and no kings needed to protect surpluses, civilization was slower to develop.

Sumer

1. As the ice caps receded, the geography of Mesopotamia changed as well. The Persian Gulf formed and multiple rivers that are still visible via satellite dried up. The rains diminished into infrequent sprinkles that came only during the winter months. In summer, searing winds blew across the unprotected plain. The streams will swell up and wash away fields leaving silt behind. The rivers had a high level of salt which they would bring down from the mountains and the heavy irrigation that they used would begin to make the crops suffer eventually. By 1800 BC they had to switch from wheat to barley which could handle salt better.

2. Settlement formed with a sanctuary (government and religious) surrounded by fields. Strips of land were left uncultivated a no-man’s land between civilizations. Buildings were made of sunbaked brick covered with oven-baked tiles. Oven work began by 6,000 BC but civilization wouldn’t occur until 3,000 BC. Since oven baking was known, the use of copper began by 6,000 BC as well. It would be combined by 3,000 BC with tin to form bronze. The oldest bronze objects are found in southern Mesopotamia but it is unknown if they originated here. The same time as bronze débuted or perhaps a little earlier, script appears as well. (The Uruk period shows social and religious continuity from the Ubaid period in the Neolithic Age)

3. The cities of Mesopotamia were independent and each ruled by a local prince. Kish lay between the two rivers, the center of kingship after the flood according to the King List, and was in a position for leadership. By 2,500 kings of other cities sometimes claim the title king of Kish showing some sort of authority over other Sumerian cities. They won’t claim any empire.

4. By the time the King List resumes after the flood, the Gulf had advanced northwards. The four rivers which are seen by satellites are pushed apart into two rivers today called the Euphrates and the Tigris names given them by the Greeks. In ancient times the eastern river was called Uruttu (Copper River-they would travel up stream to sell copper) and the Tigris called the Idiglat (swift arrow).

5. Genesis tells us that after the flood Noah’s descendants spread out into the plain of Shinar or southern Mesopotamia (Uruk period?). They set about building a city and trying to make a name from themselves by building a ziggurat (temples were to be built for the deities only). This act spreads the people out. Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Adab, Lagash, Kish, and Shurupak were all early cities. Uruk was probably the earliest city even though the King List has Eridu. Each city was protected by a patron god. The city was created to become a city-state and began to extend its power into the surrounding farmland. They were all politically linked but separate states with similarities in culture.

6. Temples and writing first appear in Sumer.

7. With the appearance of cities (prior to 3,000 BC) the culture of the hunter-gather society disappeared and the shepherds outside were rejected. The city demanded taxes. City first and the countryside second.

8. The people in Sumer are a bit of a mystery. They are known by the language they speak and not by their race or ethnicity.

People, Government, Economy, and Society

The Sumerians were not an ethnic group. In fact we have NO idea where they came from. They may have invaded and brought their language as the names of the city-states aren’t in the Sumerian language (Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Kish are all non-Sumerian). But there isn’t any evidence of an invasion.

Prior to civilization, Sumer was not a Semitic people but groups of Semitic people surrounded them. Sumerian is unrelated to any other language on earth. The Semites will influence Sumer in the form of names of people, language for numbers and other grammatical elements. Many terms for farming and other peaceful occupation are integrated into Sumerian. So they, were the ones that taught the Sumerians how to farm. By the end of the fourth millennium (that is going into the Uruk period), many inhabitants of Sumer spoke a Semitic language. We refer to this as Akkadian and these people will assume the territory in about a thousand years (2300BC). There is no evidence that they were nomadic or enemies of Sumerians. Many Akkadians became part of the ruling class and are listed on the Sumerian King List. The only distinguishing characteristics of the Semitic people (specifically the Akkadians) is language. They seem to coexist together and share similar cultural characteristics: government, religious ideas, and social structure. Later during the “Akkadian period” around 2300, they created their own cuneiform script to write Akkadian based on the Sumerian system. Previously, they used Sumerian to write.

**Other languages were spoken at various points in the NE area. Semitic languages and non-Semitic and non-Sumerian language called Hurrian existed in Syria. No ethnic strife appears to exist between all the groups when coexisting in Sumer.

Writing

People in the late Paleolithic period were using pictures to track movements of sun, moon, and calendars (by cutting grooves into bone). Writing became necessary as trade began and as cities developed. People began to use the new syllables to write not just ways to keep track of taxes but also to write epics. They left the record keeping to the new bureaucracy and artisans now had opportunities to devote to making poetry and art. But the record keeping did come first but the necessity to say “this is mine, not yours,” led gave a gift to the storytellers-they were able to make their heroes immortal. Temple administration controlled the economy so writing developed out of necessity to record agriculture and trade. Records include Inventories and transactions records. By about 2500 writing was used to produce complex texts. Used to administer temples and histories took a while to develop due to the fatalism of the people.

Two major ways to write: clay tablets and cylinder seals. Clay tablet usually recorded government transactions. Cylinder seals were used to establish ownership.

1. Token system: geometric clay pieces around 6000 BC (starting in the Zagros Mt. region). It was developed as a method for tracking possessions, trade, debts, and food transactions by using clay pieces to represent numbers and the commodities used in trade.

2. Bullae: Used in the Indus river to southwestern turkey (most in western Iran and Mesopotamia) but none in Egypt. Contained the tokens of a single transaction but these bullae would need to be broken to get into them. So they began to inscribe the token shapes on the ball. But that was a lot of work. The older system had become too complicated. Pictograms: Beginning in Uruk around 3,600 or 3,300.

1. This was a huge step forward.

2. People were writing on clay tablets. Once many people knew the meaning of symbols you didn’t need to use token any more to buy or trade goods. It also saved time. Clay is difficult to draw on and doesn’t lend itself to good detail so abstract shapes were more necessary. Cylinder seals were used to mark property with an individual symbol.

3. Cylinder seals were square seals used to write, indicate ownership, magically protect property, and prevent tampering. Writing became more effective and the seals were used with an axle or hung around neck.

4. Then cylinder seals reappeared on the scene. They began to convey an entirely new message. The seals was portable and could contain entire messages.

3. As the need to record mass transactions increased, people needed a better system then pictures. They needed a systems allowing for the recording of words and ideas-not just physical things.

4. Protoliterate period:

1. Logograms : symbols which represent words (ideograms: ideas) began around 3600 and became more common by 3300 in the late Uruk period. The first written texts are found in Uruk around 3600 BC. Other texts developed at same time in northern Mesopotamia, Syria, Iran, and Egypt.

2. Phonograms and Syllables : Symbols used as a sign to stand for a sound (phonogram) or symbols used as a syllable. This allowed scribes to write any word (logogram). Language now considered Sumerian (language not ethnic group).

5. By 3300 cuneiform developed. They used reed or wooden stylus cut on an angle. It is Latin for cuneus or wedge. It will change direction from right to left to left to right and symbols rotated 90 degrees. Had 600 characters (one character for each syllable) the picture for a cow might become the first sound in the word. With cuneiform inscriptions of not just myths but battle accounts and other form of communication such as letters could be inscribed. Epic poetry also became popular.

6. Sumerian: class by itself; began to use syllables around 3300, monosyllabic language, homophones, not linked to any other language ever. It never had the chance to become an alphabet in Sumer. Cuneiform was replaced by Akkadian.

7. Later developments

1. Semitic people modified the Sumerian. Akkadian people added their syllables to the Sumerian. Limited to small scribal class and faded around 1500.

2. Latin will be based off of Egyptian hieroglyphics!

War Stories

1. Civilization arose in order to keep the have-nots separate from the haves. Battles erupted from at least 4000 BC.

2. What is the difference between a civilization and an empire?

3. The kings in Uruk around 2800 BC became jealous of the city Kish. Kish had extended its protection and control over the city of Nippur where the shrines of Enlil stood and where kings of every Sumerian city went to sacrifice and seek recognition. Kish had a disproportionate influence over the area. It wasn’t political nor militaristic but stood as the heart of Sumer.

4. The king Meskiaggasher seized the throne of Uruk and is described as the son of the sun-god Utu. Once in control he expanded its sway over trade routes in the seas and mountains. This had to happen before war.

1. For war he needed swords, axes, helmet, and shields. But Sumer lacked metals and needed trade. So he would need to get tin from the mountains in the north so he could make bronze. He also traded in Arabia as well which had copper.

1. Around 3100, people in Sumer began to mix tin with copper to produce bronze. (10% of tin or arsenic to their copper) Bronze was stronger than copper, easier

to shape and took a sharper edge. Tin was better than arsenic which tended to kill off those manufacturing the bronze. Sumer had been in the Copper Age for some time. Copper Age of Sumer was from 5500-3000.

5. Other kings would continue to trade. In the east, in Elam, they had gold silver, and lapis lazuli. Mesopotamia had none of these things. Uruk will continue to want Kish.

Story of Gilgamesh

He is listed on the King List and is a really king of Uruk. Here is the historical (factual information):

6. His father was not a king at all. He was most likely a high priest in the Kullaba temple complex for the god An. Called a lillu-one who has demonic powers! Although kings had all been priests at one point, they now were separate. Gilgamesh seems to have seized the kingship of Uruk. He set about to capture the throne of Kish. Even without the Epic, Gilgamesh seems to have a vivid personality. He wanted it all: loyal companions, the throne, a royal title and immortality.

7. His Epic tells us how he built his city first: “he built walls, shines with …copper.” He actually used wood from the north and that is told later. Before he can get the wood he must battle the wood giant known as Humbaba or Hugeness. He would have faced the Elamite tribes but not generally giants. Then he headed off to fight the people in Kish.

8. The King of Kish, Enmebaraggesi was also the protector of Nippur and believed himself to be protected by the gods.

9. But Gilgamesh had: foot soldiers with leather shield, spears and axes, siege engines made from the timber of the north, oxen, battering ram which was floated upstream on the Euphrates.

10. However Gilgamesh failed and Enmebaraggesi lived to an old age. Agga his son took the throne of Kish next.

11. Why did Gilgamesh fail? The Epic tells of a character that has too much energy. He wears his people out. They probably mutinied.

12. He decides that he wants a war with Kish again after Agga tries to make peace. He takes his suggesting to the elders. He says “There are many well of the land to be claimed. So should we submit to the house of Kish? Instead, we should smit it with weapons!” The elders tell him to go mind his own wells. So, he rallies the young instead.

13. This council of elders was and will be common for millennia in the ancient world. Even Solomon’s kingdom will be split by refusing to listen to the council of the elders.

14. He fails for a second time. Gilgamesh will try a third time and he will win the third time. Uruk controls Kish.

Legend of the Gilgamesh

Hundred years after his death, he had become a legendary hero. Killed a giant, did away with the Bull of Heaven and turned down Inanna’s advances.

The personality of the historical person inspired the epic. Kingship was a gift of the gods for man’s survival. They needed to be strong to bring about justice. If this strength was to strong it could oppress. Gilgamesh was this oppressor. He fights not with himself but with a creature from outside. He is a reflection of Gilgamesh’s inward turmoil. Story of civilization, justice, consequences and meaning of life. (The meaning of life is to make your name immortal by having many children).

The Epic is made of 6 linked tales. Like short stories.

Tale of Enkidu: when he makes friends and Enkidu is civilized; he is wild like the uncivilized people outside the cities; eats grass; lives with animals; Gilgamesh sends a women out to seduce him; woman civilized him and all the animals flee “for now wisdom had come to him, now he had the mind of a man” he goes to the city, the proper place to live; they interpret Gilgamesh’s demands of “first rights”; they wrestle and Gilgamesh swears a bond of friendship; Gilgamesh is tamed-the people breathe. They go on a hero’s journey defeating creatures that are unnatural. During one of these adventures, Enkidu dies. Gilgamesh’s wants to find eternal life now. He journeys to Utnapishtim’s land. Utnapishtim is the only person who has attained eternal life. Gilgamesh is told the story of the world flood and how to attain eternal life-find the special plant under the river water. Finds it but a serpent takes it away. Gilgamesh is left with the other conclusion that eternal life is granted by having your name passed down by your children.

Postscript:

Copied many times onto clay tablets. The bits were scattered across the ancient Near East, written in many languages from Sumerian to Assyrian. Were made between 2100 and 612. Oldest contain only first two tales and the ending. Don’t know if the others were original. The whole thing dates to 668 when Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal became king. Different endings were put on at various times with the final ending about having many children included during the time of the Kassites.

Elam

1. Although, Sumerian speakers brought forth the premier urban civilization, which left its mark on virtually every culture of antiquity and even those of today, their unending war sapped their strength.

1. Gilgamesh had a four-city coalition that was the closest thing to a unified kingdom and his son Ur-Lugal inherited it but his cities had all been weakened by that point.

2. In the East, the Elamites were waiting.

1. Lived in small cities. Origin is unknown. They had cities south of the Caspian Sea and east of the Zagros Mts.

2. 2700 Elamites also had kings. Susa and Awan were the centers. Awan isn’t quite known. Awan was the counterpart to Sumer’s Kish.

3. For two centuries after Gilgamesh, the Elamites and Sumerian cities fought for primacy. They will conquer Ur and place kings on the throne in Kish.

Government

Sumerians called their land the “land of black-headed people.” These people with blackheads are responsible for developing the first ruling system of monarchy. The earliest of their states needed a ruler to govern diverse people living in greater areas. Before the monarchy came into existence, the Sumerian states were ruled by priests. The priest-kings had bureaucrats who were also priests. They assigned fields to people after surveying the land and also distributed the harvest among them. Next, they judged disputes, organized important religious rituals, administrated trade, and lead a military. This institution started to feel the need of legitimate authority which was beyond the tribal concepts of chieftainship.

Therefore, the Sumerians justified the authority of monarch to be based on the divine selection. Later they started believing that the monarch himself was a divine power which was to be worshipped. This way they legitimised the authority of ruler who was now in the dominant position of both ruling and serving the later generations that settled in the Sumerian states. The first monarch whose existence has been attested is Etana of Kish who ruled during 2600 BC. He was described as the man who stabilised the lands. (Source: https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/mesopotamia-history/top-10-sumerian-inventions-followed-many-civilizations/)

Technology and Science in Sumer

(Source: https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/mesopotamia-history/top-10-sumerian-inventions-followed-many-civilizations/)

Around 4,000 BC with copper eastern Anatolia all through northern Syria, Iraq to western Iran; 3000 BC with bronze (alloy of copper and tin/arsenic), easier to mold than copper but made harder weapons when cooled. Imported its supply.

1. Agriculture: irrigation system of canals dikes and reservoirs, shade-tree: protected plants from the drying effects of wind and sun…left some documents relating other methods covering things such as watering to harvesting

2. Math: based on the number 60 which they combined with the decimal system. 12 months with an intercalary month added every so often when needed to make the difference between the lunar and solar years.

1. Invented by Sumerians in the 3rd millennium, the numeral system is known as Sexagesimal. It is named so because it has number sixty as its base. The mathematics was developed out of some bureaucratic needs. Sumer started to trade their harvests and invented taxation policies. Hence there was an urgent need for keeping these records. Moreover assigning symbols to large numbers was necessary as they wanted to track the course of night ski in order to prepare the lunar calendar. Slowly and steadily they started using a small clay cone for denoting number one, a ball for ten, and a large clay cone for sixty. An elementary abacus model was formed by Sumer between 2700-2300 BC. They developed a numerical system based on number 60 in which numbers could be counted on 5 fingers on one hand and 12 knuckles on the other.

3. Sciences: wheel: around 3,000 BC, began as two wooden semicircles fastened by struts, used on two or four wheeled carts to transport goods soon they were used as chariots

1. The sailboats were given existence so that they could provide a helping hand in expanding the trade affairs of Sumerians. Wood and papyrus were used to make lightweight sailboats so that it becomes easy for them to move on the waters. The sails were given a square shape and were made of linen. For battles, the platforms were raised so that the arrows could be shot with more accuracy towards the enemies. This conventional invention in 1300 BC changed the face of trade and battles. Where there was a continuous flourishment in trade, Sumer also made themselves capable of providing their civilization great protection.

2. The oldest existing wheel in Mesopotamia belongs to 3500 BC. Sumerians first used logs of wood as wheels to carry heavy objects. They joined these logs and rolled them making it easier for the movement of hefty stuff. Subsequently, thy invented sledge and then they entered both the woods and the sledge for the smooth moving of objects. By observing these movements daily, they decided to drill a hole through the frame of the cart and make a place for the axle. Now both the wheels and axles were used separately. The Sumerians came to a conclusion that logs which had worn out centres were more manageable to be used. Therefore they connected wheels to form a chariot.

3. According to records, it was the Sumerian people to use the copper weapons for the first time. They brought into existence spears, swords, maces, slings, and clubs. They were the pioneers of weaponry. Sickles was majorly used in the battles alongside axe and spear. The socketed axe by Sumerians was the most influential weapon to be invented by them. They even used chariot for warfare.

Putting wheels in a violent way was an indelible contribution to Sumerian in the military world.

4. Calendar was religious in character. Numbers first were connected in the observation of the movements of the stars and planets. 12: months of the year and zodiac; 60: minutes, 360 degrees in a circle; 7: known planets including the sun and moon

1. The Sumerians were the first astronomers who mapped the starts to form different constellations which later were observed by the ancient Greeks as well. Moreover, they knew of five planets that were visible via naked eye. They developed a rudimentary cluster of constellations and also noted the movements of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Furthermore, they used astrological symbols to foresee the future battles and positions of city-states. Their month began with the sunset and the first crescent visibility of the New Moon. It was seen for 18 hours after the 36 hours when the old crescent disappeared. The crescent was the thinnest of all its forms.

2. They were the first ones to form a lunar calendar. Phases of moons were used to count the 12 months. Sumer had two seasons in their Sumerian Year. First was the summer which started with Vernal Equinox and the other was winter which began with the Autumnal Equinox. Sacred marriage rites were performed on the day of New Year’s Day. By adding an extra month after four years to every year, they differentiated between the year of seasons from the regular year. The day consisted of 12 hours as it started and ended with sunset

(Source: https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/mesopotamia-history/top-10-sumerian-inventions-followed-many-civilizations/)

Economy

Based on agriculture and domestication of animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, oxen, and donkeys.

Also trade in natural resources. All artisans or craftsmen generally worked for themselves or belonged to the state

If the state needed more workers, they forced people to do it. (Men, women and children)

Natural Resources

Mud and bitumen were basically the only things there. Sumer either would have trade contacts or fight wars to gain materials.

Wood had to be shipped down from the Zagros Mountains or from Lebanon. Tin was located in the Zagros Mts. or even farther north into the Elburz Mountains below the Caspian Sea. Copper came from the southern Arabian Mountains, lapis lazuli from the rocky lands north and east, stone from the desert to that west and obsidian from the far north.

The Elamites had precious metals and stone, silver, gold, lapis lazuli. They traded with Sumer in return for grain.

Needed to trade with Persian gulf, Indus River, exchanged bitumen, grain, cloth, leather, pottery, and textiles for gold, silver, obsidian, copper, lead, stone, timer spices. Few precious jewels in Mesopotamia. Trade with Iran, Syria and Asia Minor.

They would trade up and down the Tigris and Euphrates (means Copper River).

Housing

• High walls surrounded the city. Divided into four quarters. Temple complex main focus. Streets narrow, winding unpaved lanes. Whitewashed houses crammed together. The materials used to make houses was sun-dried brick, because there was little wood and stone.

• Rectangular homes with a central court and rooms arranged around it. Enter into the house through a narrow hall leading from the street into the courtyard. Stairs led from the courtyard to the roof.

• Flat roof where people could escape the summer heat.

• The rooms served multiple functions: kitchen function as sleeping chamber and/or living room and/or workshop…other rooms could be guest rooms, lavatories, slave rooms etc.…

Religion

1. Tiamat (waters) gave birth to Anu (sky), Apsu (waters), and Ki (earth)

2. Tiamat and Anu made Ea (who usurped Apsu)

3. Ea (Enki) is the father of Marduk

4. An and Ki made Enlil (air)

5. Pessimistic:

1. Flooding of the rivers

2. Invasion of people

3. Constant conflict between city-states

4. Produced a society based on appeasement

6. Gods responsible for blessings/curses

1. Need to appease constantly

7. Dismal afterlife

8. Amulets worn and spells caste to chase demons away

9. Practiced extispicy: looking at entrails

10. No separation between physical and spiritual-gods were both.

11. Anthropomorphic: like humans

12. Nothing in the physical world “existed” unless it functioned.

13. Major Theme: Order (Cosmos)

14. Humans were there to fuel the god’s supply of food.

15. The gods created by material means (clay) not a part a god (breath)

16. Man created by clay by Enki

17. No religion per se

1. Intertwined the natural world with the spiritual; All events had their origin in the spiritual world; all had a deity as the cause

2. Functions: if there ceased to be a function or a need for a deity, it ceased to exist; they are born out of necessity; a god is the origin of natural phenomena and natural phenomena is the origin of the god. As soon as it was given a name, which designated a function, the god/natural began to exist (either cosmically, terrestrially, or culturally)

3. Old Testament: God creates the universe but Moses writes in the cultural context. Yahweh creates the world by naming their functions. Still working within the cultural context but stating a simple difference: the world isn’t personal (deified). It is impersonal creation created by a personal creator. The phrase used in Exodus to describe the “function” of Yahweh is “I am.” Could be a link to an Akkadian word meaning “one who enters into relationship.”

4. Features of Mesopotamian religion:

1. Anthropomorphic: fallible, emotional, procreative, lives in community, loves, lusts…

2. Geographically located: bound by the desire to control only the community in which his/her temple is located

3. Cosmically bound: can’t perform other functions. (Yahweh is omnipotent)

4. Attributes: Good, wise, loving, just refer to situations and aren’t inherent characteristics.

18. Temples: microcosm. Gods responsible for order in the city. Temple as place of rest.

Themes in Genesis in light of Mesopotamian religion

1. lightfunction=day/night and time

2. Water and skyfunction=weather (rain/clouds…)

3. Land and plantsfunction= fertility (reproduction of plants/food)

4. Stars/planetsfunction=day/night/seasons/time

5. Sea animalsfunction=fertility

6. Land animalsfunction=fertility

7. The main theme of Mesopotamian religion: order.

8. Imagery in Mesopotamia represents the gods in cosmic temples bringing order to chaos

9. Temples:

1. Earthly temples contained representations of the cosmos and became microcosms or the earthly domains of the gods on earth so they could bring order to earthly chaos

2. The temple was located on the earth with a ziggurat connecting the temple to the sky.

3. The image itself was not considered the god but rather a material which contained the essence/spirit of the deity.

10. Fertility, prosperity, peace and justice emanate from the gods presence at the temple.

11. Links between the ancient world and the Eden texts

1. Gardens were often connected with the temple complexes as evidence of the gods’ blessing of fertility

2. Springs running from the temple into the garden are present on imagery

3. The water represents the life giving force of God/other deity

4. The place name of Eden refers to the abode of God while the garden represents the dwelling place of humanity

12. Ziggurat: Stairway…NOT a temple. Temple at bottom.

13. Thought to be a stairway to earth for the gods or perhaps a way from the people to remember the houses of the gods (mountains)

1. Put representations of a god in the temple.

14. Small versions of the “universe” with gardens, homes, offices, and other services.

Akkad

1. Although, Sumerian speakers brought forth the premier urban civilization, which left its mark on virtually every culture of antiquity and even those of today, their unending war sapped their strength. Kings battled for supremacy in Kish and the Elamites were located to the East and began to wage war.

2. Groups of Semitic language speakers were located around Sumer and co-existed with the Sumerians. One of those was Akkadian.

1. Originated in the west, north, possibly the east. Migrated in waves over a period of time but most settled in the northern area of Mesopotamia. Became known as Akkad.

2. They traced their ancestry back to different people. Semitic is related to the later tongues of Israel, Babylon and Assyria. Even in later Sumer, many of the cities were boasting Semitic names.

3. The rise of Sargon and Akkad:

1. He was a commoner. His original name was Sharrum-kin which simply means legitimate king and shows that he was born to no lawful claim. He might have been a Semite rather than Sumerian if he came from the highlands. Gave himself the name Sargon later.

2. Many tales surround his birth: 1) mother (high priestess) gave birth to him in secret (probably illegitimate) and placed him in the Euphrates River in a pitch-covered basket. For the Sumerians the river divided them for the afterlife and passing through water brought an essential change of being. A poor Semitic famer, Akki, found the basket and pulled Sargon to safety. So being drawn from the water by someone other than his parents reinforced his adoption. Akki was in the palace of the king of Kish and raised his son to be the king’s gardener.

My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not,

The brother of my father loved the hills,

My home was in the highland, where the herbs grow

My mother conceived me in secret, she gave birth to me in concealment.

She set me in a basket of rushes,

She sealed the lid with tar

She cast me into the river, but it did not rise over me,

The water carried me to Akki, the drawer of water,

He lifted me out as he dipped his jar into the river,

He took me as his son, he raised me,

He made me his gardener

1. This story establishes his noble birth as only noble women could become high priestesses. Changeling refers to her changed her identity at some point to become a priestess or rise from low-class to high.

2. Cupbearers were more than butlers. They were second to the king. Not only tasted the king’s food but also carried the king’s seal giving him the right to bestow king’s approval. Controlled access to the king. Drinking from the cups wasn’t meant just to protect the king but also to promote humility in the cupbearer knowing he could be poisoned at any time.

3. While he was the cupbearer, the Elamite king kept sending raiding parties into Sumer and then to Kish. The King tried to take it but Sargon usurped the throne and created his own empire.

1. Combination of his own strength and Sumerian weakness tipped the scale in his favor. Strong army as they used bows and arrows. Due to a lack of wood bows were uncommon in Sumer but Sargon seems to have had a source for yew wood (contact east of the Gulf).

2. His soldiers were lighter and less loaded down-freer to move.

3. Probably a gap between the classes was starting to show.

2. Effective ruler:

1. Probably conquered most of the Mesopotamian area and the Persian Gulf area.

2. Created a new capital Agade. Akkad is Hebrew. Agade has never been found

3. He replaced leadership with his own people.

4. Extended trade influence along the upper Euphrates River so that trade could flow into the south. Extended trade into Anatolia and influenced into Egypt Ethiopia and to the Indus River Valley. We don’t know the location of the ruling city of Akkad.

5. Created the first professional army in history.

6. He was savvy. He paid tribute to pretty much every local god, built temples at Nippur and made his daughter the high priestess of the moon-god of Ur.

7. Bureaucracy far exceeding anything up to this point. Standardize weights and measure, put a tax system in place (Egyptian-like), kept representatives of the old ruling families at his court as hostages for the good behavior of their cities.

8. But the far flung empire was too extended. It was held together by bureaucracy and administration

9. Soon the Sumerians began to feel like outsiders as Sargon’s men were Semites. Their dialect was Akkadian. Customs and speech were unlike Sumerians in the south. All officials and troops were Akkadian.

3. His grandson, Naram-Sin, soon felt the pressure of the uprising of others.

Those who are not part of the Land:

The Gutians, a people with no bridle,

With the minds of men, but the feelings of dogs,

With the features of monkeys.

Like small birds, they swooped over the ground in great flocks…

Nothing escaped their clutches,

No one’s caped their grasp.

4. But Naram-Sin’s armies were unable to keep the Gutian hordes away. They captured city after city.

5. The Gutians left little behind. They had 21 kings all except one reigning for 1-2 years. The cities were now a mix of Sumerian, Akkadian and Gutian.

Third Dynasty of Ur

1. 2100-2000

2. Sumer eventually pushed the Gutians out. Slowly other cities began to become free.

3. Reign of Ur-Nammu

1. Governor of Ur

2. Usurped the throne of Uruk

3. Empire spread through negotiation and diplomacy. Where he didn’t conquer he befriended. Made many marriage alliances.

4. Built temples in cities including one to Enlil

5. Prosperity and military conquest=flowering of culture, art, literature, building activities=great Ziggurat at Ur.

6. Under Ur-Nammu the Sumerians enjoyed their last renaissance. Tighter government control based on rapidly expanding bureaucracy and recordkeeping. Used messengers and well maintained road stations to speed up communication, official calendar, weights. All official governmental affairs were conducted in the ancient Sumerian language but Semitic influence heavily.

7. Not only a conqueror of the plain but the reestablished of civilization. Built roads and walls, dug canals to bring fresh water back into the cities.

8. For a little while peace reigned.

9. Creates first Law Code: Focused on exceptional cases: honest weights/measures, protection of widows and orphans, restraint on the wealthy. Punishment by fines of compensation rather than mutilation or death

Abraham

Terah was born during the rule of Naram-Sin, he probably never lived in an Ur that was free of the Gutian threat. During Terah’s life time, Ur had taken advantage of the weakening power of the Akkadian kings to free itself from Akkadian domination. By the time he was a father, to Abram, the Gutians will wreck Agade and sack the northern plains.

While this was happening, Terah thought that perhaps they should move away from the city of Ur. They march toward Canaan and away from the Gutians, Elamites and Sumerians.

In Genesis 12, Abram is said to hear the voice of a god. Not a Sumerian god or an Akkadian god but “the god”. One who refers to himself by the name of Yahweh or Adonai which means “to be”. By Genesis chapter 17 it is simply El Shaddai or the God who nourishes. New idea for Abram. Terah and his sons were likely to have been worshippers of Sin and Inanna the patron deities of the Ur. Terah’s name is related to the entomology of Sin, Sarai, is the Akkadian version of Sin’s wife, Ningal.

Milcah was named after Sin’s daughter Malkatu. Abram’s name is ambiguous. But his name and Sarai’s name were both connected with moon worship. But they are renamed later on.

Abraham and Sarah both contain the syllable “ah” in connection to the covenant name YHWH. This name will reclaim them from the possession of Ur and transfer their ownership to God.

From YHWH, Abram gets promise and command. He will be made into a great nation and will be blessed. But he needs to leave his country and his people (people of Ur-Akkadians, Sumerians and other Semites). Huge request. The people of that time were very dependent upon each other. They needed to leave in community to survive. Commanded to go the coast of the Mediterranean. Will be called Canaan later when the Phoenicians settle. These people would have called themselves something slightly different in 2100.

He was only different than the others around him not by race but by a divine selection.

They traveled up the Euphrates. This was easier than traveling straight across dessert. They turn east and settle in Haran. It lay on a well-travelled trade route, the center of moon worship and was familiar. Haran was peaceful.

Ur-Nammu had taken his father-in-law's throne and now extended his rule into a neo-Sumerian empire but his reach never extend to Haran. About 5 years after Ur-Nammu’s death Abraham resumed his journey to Canaan. He travelled southwest and came to Shechem. There he needed to know for sure if this land was going to be his-as it was full of Canaanites. Canaan is anachronistic. It will be called several names: Canaan, Israel, Judaea, Palestine, and Levant. Canaanites is first mentioned around 1775 in a tablet that refers to a group of roving bandits somewhere around the Jordan River. They were western Semites. They built their own cities. They had no unified culture and don’t have any records. People in Jericho and Catal Huyuk are some of the earliest Semites that formed cities on the Levant. Jericho is located at the site of a steady and constant stream of fresh water. They built huge defenses around 6800 BC. The western Semites were probably combined with some Amorites from Arabia.

By the time of Abram, these Semitic tribes had built up their own trade routes.

Five years after he arrived he left. The place was in turmoil. It was urbanized but drought had shrunk streams and crops. The Old kingdom in the south had collapsed and the western Semites had lost not only cropland but also their trading partner of Egypt.

The Egyptians didn’t like the Semites and vice versa. In Genesis we see Abram pretending his wife is his sister and offering her as a wife to the king. He did this out of fear. Abram ended up with Egyptian sheep cows, donkey, camels, and servants. But the Egyptians came down with a plague. Sarai’s presence brought a divine curse on it. They were all inflicted with something called neh-ga or a plague. Probably involved running sores. The pharaoh allowed him to escape after a plague was brought upon Egypt. He settled in Canaan again. 20 years pass. He used Hagar (Egyptian maidservant who was given to him by the Pharaoh as a gift-means immigrant). Common practice in Sumer. It is regulated in Sumerian codes called the Nuzi Tablets. However YHWH rejected both the potential of pharaoh fathering a child and Hagar. It

is after this chastisement of Hagar that Abram’s name is changed from Abram to Abraham. It is under Shulgi that Abraham travels to Canaan.

For the first time, race become important. People were always seen as inhabitants of a city-state. Sargon changed that. It differentiated between Sumerians and Akkadians. Even when Isaac is to find a wife Abraham sends back to Haran for Rebekah.

Hagar intended to go home but Ishmael is also set apart. Hagar returned to Abram’s household. The Arab people trace they people back to him. When grown Ishmael went with Ibrahim down into Arabia to the city of Mecca on the southwestern corner of the peninsula and they built the Ka’ba the first house for the worship of Allah.

Fall of Ur

1. 2000-1800 BC

2. Invasions of people called the Amurru (Amorites) and the Elamites. They will both destroy Ur.

3. 1792 Hammurabi becomes king of Babylon. Sumerian and Akkadian remained the written language and the cuneiform script continued to be used by Babylon’s time.

4. It was a vassal city of Assyria and the Amorites took them over. The Amorites began to rule in the Sumerian cities and in Assyrian ones as well. Their main city was Babylon.

5. Hammurabi became king after his father died or he might have been a vassal king of the city. He began to expand his kingdom. He was building his strength to take on Assur and waited until the king died.

6. The capital of Babylon gave its name to the southern part of Mesopotamia (in place of Sumer and Akkad)

7. Managing his empire

1. Hammurabi managed his growing conquest by enforcing the same code over the whole thing. They were meant to convince the people in the empire that Hammurabi was in deed a just ruler.

2. He controlled shipping routes

1. Cedar, Lapis lazuli, stone, silver, metal, bronze

2. Figured out a way to keep an eye on all the people by having boats pass checkpoints.

3. Sumerian as a dead language

1. By the reign of Hammurabi, Sumerian wasn’t used as much

2. Only used on monument inscriptions

3. Copied Sumerian literature and composed in Akkadian

Hammurabi’s Law Code

1. Copies were not just written on clay tablets but also cut into stone and set up in the courtyards of temples; for the literate to consult.

2. The text:

1. Three columns of cuneiform text, which lists almost three hundred legal decisions, sandwiched between a prologue and epilogue. Prologue: celebrates the justice of the king and lists various gods of cities. Epilogue: promises divine blessings for future rulers using the royal verdicts and calls down curses on those altering or neglecting the prescriptions.

3. Collection of legal decisions

1. Most comprehensive collection but only covers very specific cases.

4. Divine Sanction

1. The code was “authorized” by the gods

5. Greatest source of historical information about Mesopotamian Society

6. Subject specific: probably compiled from generations of law codes prior

1. Copies can be seen around temples

2. People are instructed in other sources to go to a stela for advice

7. The penalties were based on class status in the society. If you were a slave physical punishments were much harsher.

8. After Hammurabi, the Empire weakened and lost control over its territories.

9. Hittites:

1. Indo-European speaking people

2. swept down from Anatolia and destroyed Babylon around 1595

3. Babylon was too weak to defend itself and fell to the Kassites next

10. Kassites

1. People from the Zagros mountains

2. Ruled Mesopotamia from 1595-1160